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OUR CIVIL WA 



LECTURE 




DELIVERED IN PORTLAND, MAINE, 

BY P. B. TEMPLETON, 

FORMERLY ONE OF THE OFFICIAL REPORTERS IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, 



DESCRIBING, FROM HIS PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE, 
THE PRINCIPAL ACTORS ON BOTH SIDES. 



CONTENTS: 

INTRODUCTION — REMOTE AND PROXIMATE CAUSES OF THE WAR — NOT SEC- 
TIONAL — NOT PARTY — WAR OF TREASON AGAINST A LOYAL GOVERNMENT. 



CHARACTERS WHO TAKE PART IN IT; 










OUE SIDE: 

JEFFERSON DAVIS, 



% 



V 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, 
HOWELL COBB, 
J. P. BENJAMIN, 
W. L. YANCEY, 
R. M. T. HUNTER, 
JAMES M. MASON, 
&C. &C. 



THE OTHER SIDE: 

( ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

( GENERAL SCOTT, 
HANNIBAL HAMLIN, 
SALMON P. CHASE, 
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 
CHARLES SUMNER, 
W. P. FESSENDEN, 
HENRY WILSON, 

<fcc. &c. 



WITH THE CHARACTER OF SOUTHERN TROOPS CONTRASTED WITH NORTHERN 
TROOPS. CONCLUSION — THE TRAITOr's DOOM THE PATRIOT'S REWARD. 



EVERY SOLDIER IN THE UNION ARMY SHOULD RECEIVE FROM HIS FRIENDS 
A COPY OF THIS LECTURE. IT WILL AMUSE AND ENCOURAGE HIM; AND 
THE POSTAGE TO ANY CAMP IS ONLY ONE CENT. 



PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY 



DAVIS & FARMER, 
18 Exchange Street, 



Price, TEN CENTS. The usual aUowance to the Trade. 
BOSTON, 1861. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by 

P. B. Templeton, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



TO NEWSPAPERS. 

The author of this pamphlet, heing at present disengaged, offers 
his services as a reporter to any respectahle newspaper in any part 
of the country except in the seceded States. Address, Box, 3G86, 
Post Office, Boston. 

For one month the author will keep open his offer, made through 
the Boston newspapers, to deliver this lecture before any religious or 
other society within twenty-five miles of Boston, pro\dded they find 
lecture room and pay ordinary expenses. 



LECTURE. 



It may seem presumption in one wlio has no popularity, and wlio 
is entirely unknown to fame, to offer any observations on a subject 
which is now well understood by the whole American community. 
I refer, of course, to the present unfortunate Civil War in our country. 
This, however, is a subject of such deep and absorbing interest that 
any new fact or incident, or any varied phase of the whole question, 
is everywhere deemed worthy of being listened to with attention. I 
claim not to give you any new facts as to the general question ; my 
only claim to appear before you is in my personal knowledge of many 
of the characters who occupy prominent positions in as great a drama 
as ever passed before the eyes of the world, at least in modern times. 

Every child who has attended our common schools is acquainted 
with the causes which led to the formation of our government as it 
now exists, and every man who has read a newspaper has read, and 
in some measure studied and comprehended, the general operations 
of that government. It was first instituted as the result of an indom- 
itable spirit of liberty — of freedom from unjust and unfair control. 
Oppression, with all its odious features, fell before that spirit, and the 
government of the LTnited States, though born an infant, rose as it 
were miraculously into gigantic manhood, and has honorably sus- 
tained that manhood to the present hour. And although that hour 
is to us an hour of darkness and of deep foreboding, let me say to you 
that the whole civilized world still looks upon the United States as a 
present, a powerful, and a free government ; and we all know, of our 
own hearts, that there are amongst us true men and good enough to 
keep it so. 

The possibility of a permanent government, based on the principle 
of universal suffrage, is a question on which thousands of S2>eeches 
have been made, and hundreds of volumes have been written. That 
possibility is one which appeals to the heart of every American citi- 
zen, for it involves the whole theory of our government ; and no true 
American can be found who is willing to entertain, much less to ex- 
press, a doubt of it. This is a question which appeals to our fire- 



sides — to our dearest interests, socially, commercially, politically, and 
religiously ; as well as to all our best, most liberal, and patriotic feel- 
ings. Lose the principle of Universal Suffrage, and America is gone 
as a nation, and will become an easy prey to the i-apacity of any or 
every government in the Eastern hemisphere which may choose to 
invade her territories. This, however, is out of the question. We 
do not mean to lose the possession and the practice of this principle 
of Universal Suffrage: it is one which cannot be erased from the 
American conception of true liberty. "The ballot box — the ballot 
box," is the watchword and the war-cry of every true republican ; 
and, mark you, it is the destruction of the ivjfuence and power of the 
ballot box which is the great object and aim of the instigators of our 
'present national trouble. We cannot and we should not forget our 
history; and the more frequently it is repeated, and the more deeply 
it is impre.--se(l upon our hearts, the better American and Republican 
citizens we shall certainly become. We cannot and we would not 
forget the Fathers of Plymouth Rock ; we cannot forget the spirit 
which animated them to leave their native land, by reason of religious 
intolerance, to seek a refuge and a home in a far-off and unknown 
wilderness; we cannot forget the dangers they encountered, and the 
toils and sufferings they endured; we cannot forget the instructions 
they gave to their children ; we cannot forget all they taught us of 
educational, industrial, and commercial enterprise; we cannot forget 
their brave success — how they conquered alike the savage and the 
wilderness, and made the latter to blossom and bear fruit — how by 
their unexampled frugality, their incessant labor, their deep thought, 
their strict morality, and their earnest religious devotion, they gave 
to us the germ of our free institutions — the germ of that which we 
now possess in the name of political right, without the preservation 
of which all their toils and dangers and sufferings and teachings and 
examples will avail us or our posterity but little. It is true tliat 
since the lauding of the Fathers we have become a mixed population. 
We are not, even now, all the descendants of the men who estab- 
lished this republic after the revolution ; we were not all born and 
educated on this benignant soil; but to this glorious Mecca of liberty 
thousands and tens of thousands — yea, millions on millions have joy- 
fully pilgrimaged — bringing — when they had naught else to bring — 
their bone and muscle and intelligence ; and, when they had aught 
else to bring, their silver, their gold, and their incense, all of which 
they joyfully laid down in their devotions as at the holiest shrine, and 
who now feel that if that holy altar of liberty is desecrated, if its 



holy fires are extinguished, the mournfulness of the deepest desola- 
tion must again pass ovei* the world. Gentlemen, you all know that 
it is everywhere said and believed that the United States of America 
is the last hope, refuge, and anchorage of all the world of the 
oppressed. 

It would be fair and proper, now, briefly to inquire what has been 
the cause of our present national troubles — not only the remote, the 
growing, but the present cause ? Gentlemen, I have already inti- 
mated that it is a contest for the supremacy of an autocratical or 
oligarchial government, in opposition to the principJe of Universal 
Suffrage exercised through the purity and security of the hcdlot box. 
This is the contest. The foundation of this contest lies, un- 
fortunately, in the Constitution of the United States, a provision of 
which has been construed to recognize a certain class of men as 
both men and property. Be not alarmed, for, mark you, I find no 
fault with the Constitution of the United States : it is an instrument 
almost as sacred to me as the Bible itself Not a single sentence, 
line, word, syllable, or letter in that sacred instrument would I wish 
to have altered. I loved the Constitution before ever I set foot on 
the American shore, or saw a blade of gi-ass growing on American 
soil ; with my own hand I w^ote nearly one hundred copies of it 
twenty-five years ago, at a time and in a country where few printers 
would have dared to print it, for fear of arrest for the publication 
of seditious documents ; and so familiar was it to me, and so deeply 
did I become imbued with all its leading features and ideas, that 
there was not a word in it which I could not repeat by heart, from 
the first line of the preamble to the last letter in the signature of 
George Washington ; and, as a brave soldier would wish no holier 
shroud to enfold him in death than the stars and stripes of his coun- 
try, so, after receiving the grace of God, I want no better passport 
to the final resurrection than that a copy of this Constitution be 
placed in my coffin. 

But this particular provision, to which I have referred, has been 
seized upon by contending parties. North and South, as a cause for 
angry and passionate strife, — the Northern man justly complaining 
that he was not equally represented in the National government, 
and the Southern man fearing, in his conscience, that this discrepancy 
or inequality of representation might, in the end, prove the over- 
throw of his unhallowed ownership in man. The Northern man 
has said to himself that it is a political and economical impossibility 
that a man can be a man and property at the same time. It is an 



anomaly which the human mind cannot either comprehend or recon- 
cile, any more than it is possiljle for a person to be in two places a 
thousand miles apart at one and the same instant ; and it is not to 
be wondered at that lie demands the abrogation of the distinction, so 
far as his political status is concerned. He says in his heart to the 
Southern man, " If you have property so have I ; and if your prop- 
erty must be represented in the National councils, so must mine. 
There is no reason, therefore, why your particular species of property 
should be regarded in the two-fold capacity of property and man. 
We want to be equal ; we want our property to be equally assessed ; 
we want our equal voice in all that affects our property, our liberty, 
and our happiness ; but we cannot understand this double dealing. 
We want you to keep your property as property; but do not play a 
sleight-of-hand game with us, because, if you attempt to pass a bogus 
legislative or constitutional bill upon us, you may depend upon it that 
it will ultimately be rejected as counterfeit when it comes to be pre- 
sented for payment at the popular bank. Now it is needless to say 
that, under our republican institutions, the Southern States have had 
largely the advantage in this matter of congressional representation. 
They have been regarded as the spoiled children of the Northern 
and Western States ; and because they were weak in population, the 
latter States have borne with their petulance until their arrogance 
has really become unbearable. Now I do not believe there is a 
single man here who would hurt any Southerner to the amount 
of a hair of his head, or that would interfere with any of the con- 
stitutional rights of the Southern States ; but when some of the 
people in these States are a little naughty, they must receive such 
a reasonable chastisement as a tender father would give to his dis- 
obedient child ; and when that child is sufficiently repentant, he will 
find his father's arms extended widely open to receive him again to 
his duty, his allegiance, and his father's love; and it may be, as in 
the case of the Prodigal Son, that for him Avould be "killed the 
FATTED CALF." That such will be the final result of this unfor- 
tunate family quarrel I have not the slightest doubt. 

This war has been characterized as a war of geographical sec- 
tions — and again by others as a war originating out of party and 
political strife. Gentlemen, it is no such thing. It is neither the 
one nor the othei". It is not a war of geographical sections — for 
among the millions of the South there are millions of patriotic men 
whose voices, by reason of oppression and the misrepresentations of 
Northern feeling, cannot be heard in favor of the Union. Our social 



relations are so intimately interwoven that it is not jiossible to sus- 
tain the assertion, with any show of reason, that this is a sectional 
war. Neither is it a war between political parties, for every shade 
of political party is represented on the one side at least. We have 
democrats of every grade — Hunkers and Barnburners, — Hard Shell 
and Soft Shell, — Breckinridge Democrats and Douglas Democrats — 
Old Line Whigs — Republicans of the abolition, the radical, and the 
conservative stripe — all, all of us on the same side. No, gentlemen, 
this is neither a war of sections nor of parties ; it is a war of rebel- 
lion against a constitutional government — a war of treason against 
loyalty — a war conceived, hatched and matured by a gang of am- 
bitious traitors, some of whom I propose very shortly to describe 
to you. 

This war has been sneeringly characterized by some presses, 
North as well as South, as "President Lincoln's War" — Northern 
presses, I regret to say, which, under cover of sustaining the Union, 
clearly do all in their power to render aid and comfort to the rebels. 
Now, gentlemen, you know that President Lincoln never so much as 
raised his finger to create or commence this war. On the contraiy, 
he bore with the seizures and aggressions and violations of the Con- 
stitution and the laws by traitors — a system of things inaugurated 
and perfected under the preceding government — he bore with these, 
thinking the people of the rebellious States would of themselves see 
the gulf into which they were plunging, and would arrest the career 
of the madmen who were leading them onward — he bore, I say, all 
this with patience and hope, until the people of the loyal States began, 
in tones unmistakable, to intimate that he must preserve the govern- 
ment he was elected to administer, or ignominiously resign his posi- 
tion to some one who Avould. The history of the whole world, from 
Adam to tlie present hour, furnishes no such example of patient 
forbearance, and of anxious desire not simply to prevent collision 
but to reconcile and harmonize our national intei'ests and feelings ; 
and even to bring back the vilest traitors to a sense of their duty 
and their own good. No, gentlemen, this is not President Lincoln's 
war, but if you like my opinion, it is James Buchanan's war ; it is 
John B. Floyd's war ; it is Howell Cobb's war ; it is Isaac Toucey's 
war ; it is the war of Jefferson Davis — of Alexander H. Stephens — 
of J. P. Benjamin — of John Slidell — of J. C. Breckinridge — of James 
M. Mason, cum midtis aliis, whose names on this page of our history 
will forever be classed with that of Benedict Arnold, and will forever 
be regarded with equal execration. 



Now, after this long introduction, I must state that I have two 
objects in view. I propose to give you a few personal sketches of 
the chief men who are figuring on both sides of this unhappy contest. 
Almost all of them I knevv' personally. Next, a few words relative 
to the character of Southern troops in contrast with that of Northern 
troops, and then conclude with some appropriate remarks contrastive 
of the traitor and patriot. 

I trust you will not accuse me of vanity when I mform you that I 
was one of the official reporters in the United States Senate when 
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Thomas II. Benton, John C. Calhoun, 
and many others now no more, were prominent characters on that 
floor, and when many living characters now acting a prominent part 
in our country's history were there also. With all these men my 
professional occupation as a reporter brought me in almost daily 
contact; so that, in almost every case, what I have to say is derived 
from personal knowledge. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

First, then, gentlemen, for a few of those men who have had the 
most direct hand in creating this war; and first and chiefest of all, 
is Colonel or General Jefferson Davis — the man who would be the 
destroyer of the United States, and the founder of a government 
which he may depend upon it the great powers of civilization will 
never recognize. He was in Maine and Massachusetts some three 
years ago, alledgedly for the benefit of his health, but evidently, as 
subsequent events have shown, for the deeper purpose of spying out 
the nakedness of the land, and estimating the number of traitors on 
whom he could rely to favor and assist him in his treasonable projects. 
He accepted and partook of the hospitality of our New England homes ; 
he was everywhere treated as a gentleman, and one thing is very cer- 
tain — he was neither tarred nor feathered, as any one of us would un- 
doubtedly have been had we been in his territory at the time, and spok- 
en as freely as he took the liberty of speaking in ours. He Avas receiver! 
into the houses of our most reputable citizens ; horses and carriages were 
at his command ; he was shown all our fortifications, and all our weak 
points of military defence. Some of your newspapers flattered and 
fawned upon him, while others treated him with but little deference. 
But who is this terrible Jefferson Davis? I have not traced his his- 
tory further back than that he was a cadet at West Point, where he 
undoubtedly received a good military education. After his departure 
from that celebrated school, the fii'st thing that is heard of him as 



9 

being remarkable, is, his winning the affections of an amiable lady — 
the daughter of General Taylor, who, as you all know, was our hon- 
ored and lamented President of the United States. Of course, no 
one can reasonably object to gallantry of this kind, for I at least 
believe that in these affairs ladies and gentlemen ought to have, and 
they generally wUl have and contrive to have their own way. Such 
always has been, and doul)lless always will be, the law both of man- 
kind and of womankind in these matters. But General Taylor, in 
this instance, did not like this particular kind of law, and, with his 
proud, manly and honorable spirit, he refused for long and many a 
day to hold any intercourse with Jefferson Davis, on the score of his 
having been guilty of what he (General Taylor) believed to be an 
unholy theft. Besides, General Taylor was a man for the Union, — 
the whole Union — and he wished no family association with a man 
who had encouraged the repudiation of just debts, and who other- 
wise advocated doctrines subver.-ive of the stability of the country. 
It was only when Jefferson Davis gallantly distinguished himself 
as a son of Mars, as well as a son of Cupid, that the old General 
consented to acknowledge him as a son-in-law. A partial reconcilia- 
tion took place, but it Avas never remarkably cordial ; and through the 
influence, in part, of friends of the worthy General, Mr. Davis obtained 
a seat in the United States Senate, in 1848, as a Senatorial representa- 
tive from Mississippi, but he was never admitted into close relationship 
with General Taylor's government. In fact, it was then well known 
that the father-in-law and the son-in-law were at the very antipodes of 
political faith. General Taylor wished California to be admitted as 
a State, in order to save the agitation of the slavery question, and 
Jefferson Davis opposed the admission with all the feeble power 
of which he was capable, and was one of the seven who, when the 
bill was finally passed, demanded that their impotent protest should 
be entered on the Journal of the Senate. Thus it happened that the 
old feud between him and President Taylor was not cordially settled 
even in General Taylor's life time. 

I shall not soon forget the first time I was called upon to take notes 
of one of Jefferson Davis's speeches in the Senate. I was cautioned 
by the knowing ones among the reporters to be on the alert, for he 
was said to be very difficult to report, on account of his mumbling 
indistinctness and rapidity of utterance ; and of his excessive disposi- 
tion to indulge in technical phraseology, whenever an opportunity 
was afforded. As he rose from his seat, his cheeks were puffed out, 
evidently with self importance. His eyes sometimes cast down, some- 



10 

times elevated, sometimes wandei-ing around tiie Senate Chamber, 
finally became fixed upon the Vice President — then Mr. Fillmore. 
He proceeded with a pomposity which at once indicated conceit. 
His enunciation was very indistinct, even to the quick ears of report- 
ers : his manner was cold, ungenial, and overbearing, and full of that 
kind of sternness which usually distinguishes military oratory. Even 
then, he seemed to be filled with the idea of secession; and it seemed, 
so far as I could judge, to be his especial desire to please John C. 
Calhoun, who was sitting on his left, and watching with his eagle eye 
every word which fell from his lips. I cannot, at present, recall the 
subject of the speech, but I distinctly recollect that it fell dead upon 
the ears of the Senate ; and I could see the smile of Clay and "Web- 
ster and DaAvson and Berrien and Seward and Douglas and Soule 
and Benton — all great lawyers, and all great statesmen — playing up- 
on their lips, at the evident egotism of the Senator from Mississippi. 
His older and more wily colleague from the same State (Henry S. 
Foote) replied to him ; and, with a withering sarcasm and a volubility 
of verbiage peculiar to himself, appeared to make Mr. Jefferson 
Davis look as small a man (so far as regarded statesmanship or legis- 
lative or forensic ability) as was then within the semi-circle in front 
of the Vice President's chair. — Such was my first experience of 
President Jefferson Davis. The only interest which he afterwards 
excited in my mind, as a Senator, was, when it came to my turn to 
.report him, how I should contrive to report him faitlifully, so as not 
to disgrace either him or myself. — During the severe contest in 1850 
on the question of the admission of California, Mr. Davis was one of 
the most pompous and bitter opponents of the admission of that 
state : and it not unfrequently happened that he received severe ex- 
coriations from. " Old Bullion," and the more witty but not less astute 
Senator from New Hampshii-e, John P. Hale. 

It fell to my lot, during that session, to have frequent occasion to 
visit Mr. Davis at his room, and I must do him the justice to say, 
that, in his privacy and personal intercourse, I always found him a 
perfect gentleman. At the close of the session I travelled with him 
from Washington to Pittsburg in Pennsylvania. At that time we 
liad to travel in stages across the Alleghany Mountains, and down 
the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers in a miserable little 
steamboat. JNIr. Davis's wife, the daughter of General Taylor, (then 
in deep mourning for the recent death of her father,) was one of our 
tx-avelling companions. As a companion in the stage, Mr. Davis was 
exceedingly agreeable, and showed a great versatility of talent and 



11 

careless easiness of manners. I noticed, however, as we were passing 
down one of the aforesaid rivers, that he took particular interest in 
the card playing, which was common on these steamers in those days 
among the rougher sort of passengers. I have seen him stand be- 
hind the backs of the players for an hour at a time, (particularly 
when they were playing what is called the game of "bluff,") appa- 
rently watching, with much interest, the success of the man who was 
the best bluffer. On the way he lost two of his trunks, but by dint 
of telegraphing, and other means, he and I recovered them, and he 
went on his way down the Ohio, and I pursued mine up the 
Alleghany. 

Without going too minutely into his history, we next find him as 
Secretary of War, under President Franklin Pierce. Both of these 
gentlemen, you know, were in the Mexican war, and whether Mr. 
Davis assisted Mr. Pierce when his horse took that unfortunate faint- 
ing fit, I am not informed ; but it is very certain that they were sub- 
sequently most intimately related — brothers in arms and equally 
brothers in peace. Mr. Davis kept his position as Secretary of War 
until the very last. He saw no reason to resign. I saw him on two 
or three occasions in the War Department, and was always received 
with courtesy and kindness ; and on one occasion, chatting familiarly 
about the effect his speeches produced, he remarked, that he thought 
he ought to take some lessons in oratory, but that he did not believe 
that, with any amount of instructions and application, he could ever 
come up to the Ciceronian standard. At the close of Mr. Pierce's 
administration he went home, and was reelected to the United States 
Senate, where he remained until his treasonable plots were, to his 
mind, matured and completed. Of course it is unnecessary for me 
to say, that he was in constant communication with John B. Floyd, 
his successor in the War Department, and there can be no doubt that 
he was, in all respects, a partice^JS criminis in all that Floyd con- 
templated and performed. 

Physically, Mr. Davis is a weak man. His health is not good. 
He has all the ambition of being a Dictator, but not the requisite 
powers, either of head or heart or body, to accomplish the object of 
his ambition. By some men, in his own State, he has been called a 
coAvard, on the ground that on one or two occasions he refused to be 
provoked into fighting a duel. I do not, however, believe that he is 
cowardly as a soldier. He is wily, crafty, and ambitious ; and, I fear, 
in all respects that go to making up an honest man, he is entirely de- 
ficient. He hates General Scott with the bitterest of all hatred — 



12 



and I believe there is not much love lost between tliem. In stature, 
Mr. Davis is about five feet six or seven inches ; his age I should judge 
to be somewhere about fifty. His talents are undoubtedly varied and 
he will, unquestionably, be a formidable enemy. From what I have 
seen of him, my impression is, that his great and leading idea is to be 
a second Napoleon, with the evident hope of being a greater man 
than the third and present Napoleon. It is not for me to make any 
predication of your sentiments on this subject as to its result; but I 
cannot refrain from presenting to you one paragraph m his message 
to the Confederate Congress, as being remarkably illustrative of the 
character of the man. It is as follows : 

"The declaration of war made against this Confederacy by Abra- 
ham Lincoln, the President of the United States m his proclamation 
issued on the fifteenth day of the present mouth, rendered it nece.- 
saiy in my judgment, that you should convene, at the earliest practi- 
S mSit,to demise the measures necessary ior the defence of 
the country." 

The "declaration of war made by Abraham Lincoln" !! If this 
sentence, in its statement and argument, does not show to you the 
most brazen falsehood, or the most unaccountable ignorance and con- 
ceit, I cannot conceive how another sentence could be constructed 
that would more effectually do so; and yet this is but one of a thou- 
sand of the same unprincipled character, all equally illustrative of 
the bombast and impudence of this unmitigated traitor. _ 

Such, gentlemen, is a brief description of the man who is at tlie 
head of the rebel movement. Such is the man against whose mach- 
inations and ambition your brothers, fathers, and sons have gone forth 
to ficrht for the preservation of the liberties of our beloved Amenca ! 
Such is the man who would destroy our glorious constitution, and 
plant a secession flag on the cupola of Faneuil Hall! Are you m 
love with him? No. Are you afraid to meet him ? No. Do you 
believe him honest in his protestations (?) for the preservation of our 
government as handed down to us by the Fathers? No. Do you 
^ot all think that he is scarcely worth the price of rope enough to 
afford him the just retribution of a traitor to his country .'' L^*^*— 
ves-yes.l All of us will say yes ; I do, with all my heart : for since 
I began this sketch, developments of his character have been made 
which stamp him, in my mind, as the most treacherous villain, the 
vUest hypocrite, or the most confirmed madman that ever escaped 
from Bedlam. 



13 

Now this man — like a wandering comet — has got a tail in which 
there are some brilliant sparks ; and if time will permit, I intend to 
speak of some of the sparks m that tail. But there are two heads 
and two tails in this secession business, and I think I shall deviate 
from my original purpose so far as to put the heads together first, 
and make a little comparison of their relative weight and worth, and 
then dispose of the tails afterwards as time and opportunity may 
allow. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

We have seen one President — the President of the Confederate 
States as they ai-e called. He is comparatively small in stature ; 
you can judge of the largeness of his intellect by what you saw and 
heard of him when he visited New England, and by the folly he has 
exhibited in his efforts to subvert this government and establish a 
despotism upon its ruins. 

Let us look at the other President — Abraham Lincoln. He is 
tall in stature — stands, it is said, six feet two inches in his stock- 
ings. You all know, however, that a man is not to be judged of 
solely by his physical appearance, or by the amount of flesh he 
may be able to carry. The real worth of a man is not to be 
judged of by the amount of his specific gravity, or by the length 
of his perpendicularity. But if a perpendicular man of six feet 
two inches has hack hone enough to support that perpendicularity, 
and if, with such a stature, nature has given him equal propor- 
tions in the head, we small men are very apt to look upon such a 
man as a giant. Now we have this tall giant, Abraham Lincoln, 
elected according to the provisions of the Constitution of the United 
States, as our chief magistrate. I have never seen him to know 
him, so that I can give you no true description of his physiognomy. 
His visage has been represented to the public eye in all sorts of con- 
. tortious — so much so that a Philadelphia lawyer of some celebrity 
once suggested that if Mr. Lincoln would give him permission to 
commence actions in his name against all the artists who had de- 
famed his pkisique, he would be able to make a larger sum in one 
year than any lawyer could do by miscellaneous practice in double 
the time. I have not seen this giant, but I have heard and read 
something about him ; and from my reading (although I would not 
fall down and worship a statue because it is tall) I must confess that 
it has given a new impulse to that American spirit within me that 
loves tall things. This tall man, Abraham Lincoln, is our rightfully 



14 

constituted President. Let us look at him a little as he has shown 
himself by his acts. He is but a man, and in all probability will 
commit errors. This is to be expected — for human nature nowhere 
is perfect ; and no one who has not frequently witnessed tlie labor to 
be performed by a cliief magistrate, whether of the Nation or of a 
State, can imagine its variety, its arduousness, and its harrassing 
effects upon bodily health. But still this man is a giant ; and it is, 
and always has been, in the nature of humanity, from the nursery 
upwards, to look up to a giant. Now for the Constitution and the 

Union, and the enforcement of the laws, we have 

Gentlemen, I was going to say we have THREE giants — the 
giant Lincoln, the giant Douglas, and the giajit Scott, united 
together as a trinity in unity to preserve intact this American 
Union — but one of them is no more ! 



DOUGLAS. 

Wliile yet the eyes of more than a million of American voters 
are dimmed with tears in consequence of a nation's bereavement, 
it would ill become me to trespass upon a nation's grief. 

Alas ! Great Douglas ! I knew him well ! and whatever else 
may be said of him, by friends or foes, be mine the privilege to 
declare that he was 

EVERY INCH A MAN. 



LINCOLN— (i?es«7«erf.) 

A separate word about this giant Lincoln — for I find I am trench- 
ing upon time more seriously than I expected. It was said of him 
sneeringly that in earning his livelihood he was chiefly distinguished 
for his capacity in splitting rails ; and others said he was a man of 
such mighty power that he would eventually split the Union. 

Another class sneered at him because he was honest and indus- 
trious enough, and had ability enough to steer a flat boat down the 
Mississippi River. It was further said of him, before the election, 
by some papers which have since nobly come to his support, that he 
was so undignified as to sit on the doorstep of his own cottage and 
converse with a friend in his shirt sleeves. These were, of course, 
the meannesses of pohtical animosity, intending to convey the idea 



15 

that because of this simple unstarched mode of life, Mr. Lincoln 
could not satisfactorily occupy the presidential chair. These, how- 
ever, be it known, were all insinuations against the dignity of 
LABOR, and any insinuation against that dignity aims at once a fatal 
blow at the American heart. 

But taking up the story of the shirt sleeves, let me say to you 
now. that Mr. Lincoln has taken off his coat and rolled up his shirt 
sleeves in order that he may work in good earnest for the preser- 
vation of the government in its entirety and integrity. He means 
to fight for it, as it seems fighting there must be — to die for it if die 
he may ; but, in any and every event, determined he is to leave the 
United States as he found them — a government established by Uni- 
versal Suffrage, and sustained by the purity of the ballot box. It is 
a glorious thing for free America, at tliis moment of her history, to 
have a President who is not ashamed to sit on his own doorstep in 
his shirt sleeves and converse with a friend. Oh, if there is a thought 
that can inspire approval and admiration, it is that thought of easy 
freedom in the person of a high functionary ! How many millions 
oi' hearts and voices have poured out their ovations to the brave, but, 
as some would say, "undignified" Garibaldi, who, when he had 
wrested the sceptre of Italy from the grasp of tyrants, modestly re- 
tired to an agricultural life, bearing his honorable wounds, and yet 
humbly earning his bread after having dictated terms to princes, and 
when he might have become a prince himself. He, gentlemen, wore 
a RED FLANNEL SHIRT; and if the dictator of Southern 
Europe assumed the liberty of wearing an easy costume like this, 
instead of arraying himself in the glittering trappings of silver and 
gold, surely the President of a great and free people like those of 
the United States may do the same without disparagement either to 
his own honor or the honor of his country. Gentlemen, this sense- 
less, malicious, spiteful venom falls harmless when spit upon the 
honest and the brave. Nay, it operates more frequently for good 
than for evil. Why, I know a man who had the control of seventeen 
votes in the circle of his own family and friends, who, at the last 
election, had almost determined to use his influence, to that extent, 
in favor of Bell and Everett ; but this and other miserable insinua- 
tions determined him in favor of the man thus maligned, and all 
these votes were thrown into the ballot box for the successful 
candidate. 



16 



GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT. 

Of General Scott I can say little more than the whole history of 
his life has told you. He is a man who lives in the hearts of the peo- 
ple by his deeds ; who gives his whole being to his country, accepting 
only the reward of one who has done his whole duty, and who is wil- 
ling to continue to do it unto the last hour. 

I cannot easily forget the first time I saw that great man to know 
him. It was on the floor of the United States Senate, on a very 
solemn occasion. What think you was the occasion ? It was when 
the corpse of Henry Clay was borne into that august chamber to 
receive the last sad tribute of respect. During the funeral obsequies 
General Scott went behind one of the pillars of that chamber and 
wept. I felt, when I gazed upon the coffin of the great Kentuckian, 
that a great man was gone, but that yet a great man was living; and 
when I saw those tears fall from the eyes of General Scott, I felt 
that although he possessed all the military fire, and all the bravery 
of a true soldier, he equally possessed the heart of a true man, and 
we may rest assured, that, although the rebels say that he is old, and 
past the age of seventy-six, he has all the spirit and intelligence and 
patriotism which actuated the fathers of 1776, and that they will 
jirobably soon discover to their cost. 

Such, gentlemen, are two of the giants agamst whose stately forms 
Mr. Jefferson Davis is endeavoring to dash out his brains as against 
a wall. 

ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 

But who have we next, among the men who have created this war? 
We have Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice President of the 
Southern Confederacy. I must say, gentlemen, that I am more sorry 
to see Mr. Stephens in that position than I would be to see any other 
man among the rebels. 

Mr. Stephens is a lawyer of unquestioned ability, and is, perhaps, 
as ready and eloquent a debater as ever was within the halls of Con- 
gress. No man in former times has plead more eloquently for the 
preservation of the Union and the Constitution. He is a man o 
such mark as a speaker, that, whenever he got the floor in the House 
of Representatives, he was listened to with the utmost attention. 
There was no scattering of the House, as is too frequently the case 
when certain members rise to read manuscript speeches, one word of 



17 

whicli they nev(?r wrote for themselves ; but when Stephens spoke, 
groups of members would collect around him, and watch with eagerness 
every word that fell from his lips. I verily believe it was wholly and 
utterly against Mr. Stephens's wish to aid. in any way, this secession 
movement, but that he was forced into it by the same sort of pressure 
of circumstanc(!s which lias sometimes forced otherwise honest men to 
take to the highway in order to preserve themselves and their families 
from starvation. But Mr. Stephens has taken the fatal step, and he 
must abide the consequences of his action. So fully impressed am I 
with a belief in Mr. Stephens's former patriotism, and of his love for 
the whole country to be preserved under a common government, that 
I feel assured he would now gladly retrace his steps if he had a fair 
and honorable opportunity of doing so. That opportunity, however, 
in all probability will never occur. 

In stature Mr. Stephens is about the medium height. His consti- 
tution is not by any means robust. Stories say of him, that many 
years ago he fought a duel with bowie knives, in which he killed his 
antagonist, while he himself was fearfully mangled ; by reason of 
which his constitutional powers became much impaired. He looks, 
even now, like an over-grown boy, without beard, and of very sallow 
complexion. His voice has something of effeminacy in it, but it is 
clear, and though shrill, is by no means disagreeable. He is unques- 
tionably a man of distinguished ability, and those Northern men who 
know him best, cannot but regret that he has placed himself in such 
an unfavorable position. 

Such is a brief sketch of the rebel Vice President. 

HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 

We have presented you with a brief picture of the rebel Vice 
President. Now we have a legitimate Vice President, — Hannibal 
Hamlin, — who, in the event of President Lincoln's assassination 
(which you know has been threatened), or of his dying a natural 
death before the expiration of his office, — both of which events I 
\ pray God to forefend, — I repeat, that we have a legitimate Vice 
President, who, in either of these calamitous events, will not disgrace 
tlie Presidential chair, as I am sure he will not disgrace that of the 
Vice President. 

j It might seem a work of supererogation to say anything to citizens 
of the New England States, and especially to citizens of the State 
pf Maine, concerning one of their own honored statesmen ; especially 

I ^ 

) 



18 

concerning one who has held so prominent a position before the public 
eye for so long a period as Mr. Hamlin has done. He is not, like 
Vice President Stephens, so eloquent and forcible in debate, but of one 
thing I can assure you, he is not less shrewd ; not less inibnned in 
regard to all that appertains to the real and permanent ^\•elfare of 
the country ; not less honest ; not less patriotic; not less industrious, 
and not less determined — yea, as determined, more determined to 
destroy this viper of secession, tlian Mr. Stephens possibly may be, 
or can be, to galvanize it into actual and permanent life. 

Mr. Hamlui is a worker. In the Senate he was always at his 
post; and as a committee man he was constant and indefatigable in 
his labors. As chairman of the Committee on Commerce for a niun- 
ber of years, looking first, to the interests of the whole country, and 
secondarily only to those of his state, he earned a reputation for ability, 
industry, and integrity, so that it rarely happened that any of his 
suggestions in open Senate were seriously controverted or dis])utcd. 
As a member of the Committee on Printing, he saved and tried to 
save the country from a system of the most wasteful expenditure in 
the printing department; and the country has shown its appreciation 
of his long and faithful services by placing him next in succession 
(so far as we have succession) to the highest position to which rea- 
sonable human ambition can aspire — that of being the head of a 
free, an industrious, a thinking, and a great })eo]5le. 

We have, therefore, a President and a Vice President in all mate- 
rial respects equal, and in many other respects infinitely superior to 
the bogus President and Vice President of the Southei-n Confeder- 
acy. But I fear tha't I am becoming tedious, and I must skim over 
these individual representations more rapidly. 

HOWELL COBB. 

We have next, taking a leading part among the rebels, Howell 
Cobb of Georgia, Mr. Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, who 
kept that place just long enough to spend every dollar there was in 
it, and every dollar he could prevail upon Congress to vote him — 
long enough to waste all the millions which were in the Treasm-y 
when he went there, and long enough to saddle the country with 
many millions more, which Mr. Cobb will find the whole country, and 
not a sectioUy will be called upon to pa}'. The securities of the 
United States in foreign hands will be demanded of the United 
States by foreign governments. They will be demanded of the 
whole United States, and not of a Northern Section or of a Southern 
Confederacy. , 

I have not time, and it is scarcely worth the ti'ouble to attempt toi 
describe Mr. Cobb's personal appearance, or his style of oratory.' 
The latter certainly is not very fascinating; and as for the former, i! 
is sufficient to say, that he is so vain of it that he imagines a Indy 
cannot look upon him without being incurably smitten. 



19 

Mr. Cobb was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 
1849 to 1851. It took about three weeks to* elect him. He finally 
carried the House m preference to Robert C. Winthrop, of Massa- 
chusetts, by a veiy small majority — not exceeding two or three votes. 
He has since been President of the Southern Congress, (his vanity 
always led him to seek such positions,) and if reports spoke truly, he 
magnanimously announced his determination, at the close of the 
Monlgomery Congress, to retire into private life. It is to be hoped 
tliat he will adhere to this determination, for it might be exceedingly 
dangerous for the preservation of his personal dignity, under the 
present state of financial derangement, that he should make his appear- 
ance either on Wall Street in New York, or on State Street in Boston. 

SALMON P. CHASE. 

Now% on the other hand, as Secretary of the Treasury of the 
United States, we have under the present administration one Salmon 
P. Chase, formerly, and again latterly, United States Senator from 
Ohio, and, for several terms, Governor of that prosperous, liberal, 
and wealthy State. Mr. Chase is a lawyer of considerable reputa- 
tion, an easy, deliberate, yet fluent and effective speaker, and is more- 
over a careful and calculating man. He has clearly learned the eco- 
nomical lesson, " take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care 
of themselves." He is a close man, and I believe a thoroughly hon- 
est man ; and you know that such .a man is the right man to have 
charge of the public purse — because the public purse is your purse 
and my purse — the nation's purse ; and Salmon P. Chase will faith- 
fully guard it from abuse. 

J. P. BENJAMIN. 

There is another man whom I must mention on the other side — 
Senator Benjamin, of Louisiana. I find I must cut the matter short. 
He is about the meanest of the whole brood of secessionists, and 
Heaven knows they are all mean enough. How, after he departed 
from a New England College in such a disgi*aceful manner as he did, 
he ever got into the United States Senate, is a mystery there is no 
time now to solve. I mean no offence to any religious persuasion 
iwhen I say, that Mr. Benjamin belongs to the lineage of Israel — 
I whether to the tribe, the name of which he bears and disgraces, is 
immaterial. I say I mean no offence to any religious persuasion, for, 
thank God, our glorious Constitution guarantees perfect freedom of 
(religious opinion and ex])ression. Mr. Benjamin came to Yale Col- 
jlege to obtain such an education ;is he could not obtain in Louisiana: 
put having certain proclivities said to be common among certain Jew- 
ish tribes, he !\])propriated the funds and other property of liis fellow 
Itudents to his own uses ; and for that reason was quietly dismissed 
t-om tlie establishment. We hear somewliere of a "ruling passion" 
leing "strong in death."' IMr. Benjamin lias certainly not yet conquered 



20 

his ruling passion, for he has recently given active signs of its vitality 
by aiding, abetting and comforting, and, no doubt, personally Ji*- 
sisting the traitors and thieves who seized upon and jjilfered the 
United States Mint at New Orleans ; and indeed it has been insinu- 
ated that, in this respect, IMr. Benjamin is so mean a man that he is 
in all probability a true descendant in a direct line from that mire- 
penting thief who was cruciiied on the left hand side of our Lord || 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

OMNIBUS. 

It was my intention, gentlemen, to have spoken of other leading 
men on both sides of this unfortunate quarrel, from my own knowl- 
edge of them; but I hnd that I have laid out too broad a programme 
ibr a single lecture. I intended to have spoken of Toombs, of Hun- 
ter, of Mason, (the most insignificant and pom})ous of all the Virginia 
aristocracy,) of Slidell, of Mallory, and Yulee, and especially ol' 
Bayard of Delaware, Avho, you remember, was President of the 
Charleston Democratic Secession Convention, who still keeps his 
seat on the floor of the United States Senate, and who — always ex- 
cepting Mr. Benjamin — is about as mean and unprincipled a legisla- 
tor as ever occupied a seat on the floor of that chamber. 

In contrast with these men, it was my intention to have said a few 
words about Mr. Seward as in o])position to Toombs and Hunter, Mr. 
Sumner in contrast with Mason, Mr. Fessenden as against Slidell, 
Mallory, Yulee, and Bayard, and Henry Wilson and John P. Hale 
as against the whole gang of traitors, who so recently defiled the 
Senate Chamber with their foul-mouthed treason. I intended to 
have spoken of Simon Cameron, the aged but well worn and still 
l)right patriot of Pennsylvania, who is now Secretary of War; ot' 
the brave Ben Butler of Massachusetts, (I know him well,) who, 
tliough but a recent convert, is as zealous and enthusiastic and true 
in his support of the Union, as Avas the Apostle Paul in favor o! 
Christianity, after he had seen the light and heard the voice whih 
journeying to Damascus. I intended to have spoken of all these 
and of other distinguished and patriotic men, whose names will, b\ 
future generations, be embalmed in the history of their country V 
greatness and glory, but I find it is impossible, and I must conclud( 
this desultory discourse with a few words only concerning the 

REBEL AND LOYAL TROOPS. 

On this subject, I will take (he liberty of presenting a short ex 
tract, which I wrote a short time ago lor one of the Boston paper?- 
and which contains some carefully calculated facts. I ask specifi 
attention to the figures. 

" Let us look at this Avar rpiestion for a moment as to the con 
parative numerical strength of the contending parties. 



21 

The total number of votes cast at the last presidential election, 
according to official returns (leaving out the vote of Califoi'nia and 
Oregon), was about 4,528,1)00. This, with the two exceptions above 
named, was the total vote of all the States — free and slave. 

Now, supposing that the whole of the slave States arrayed them- 
selves against the government (which is not the case and there are 
millions of Union men in the seceded States), the vote of the Free 
States remains as tbllovvs : — 

For Lincoln, ...... 1,813,1 (j7 

For Douglas, 1,225,484 

For Bell, 171,654 

For Breckinridge, 244,900 



Total vote of the Free Slates, . . 3,455,205 

These figures, deducted from the total vote cast, leaves 1,073,700 
cast in ALL the Slave States ; or, to present the case in clearer 
juxtaposition, the figures stand thus : — 

Free State voters, 3,455,205 

Slave State voters, ..... 1,073,700 

Or about three and a half of the former to one of the lattei". 

From the responses received from all of the Free States we may 
rely upon almost the whole of the above to lend their aid in some way 
in support of the government — or at letist that the raising of troops 
will be in the proportion of three and a half in the North, to one in 
the South. Is there any doubt — can there be any reasonable doubt 
— as to the final result of the contest ? " 

From the mere question of numbers, then, gentlemen, you see at 
once where the strife must end — particularly wlien you consider that 
the intelligence, the order and subordination, and the courage also 
largely preponderate on the side of the numbers. Now, of what 
class of men are these Southern troops made up ? Some few of them 
may possibly be owners of slaves, and may be incited with all the 
enthusiasm which a fanatical belief in the justice of their cause can 
inspire ; but if you look into the facts as regards the proportion of 
slave owners to the rest of the white population in the South, you 
will find that only about one in twenty of the Southern whites owns 
a slave. In other words, say there are 400,000 slaveholders out of 
8,000,000 of white population. Now, do you suppose these slave- 
holders are going to leave their slaves to idle away their time, and 
perhaps to murder their families, while they are fighting this ridicu- 
Uius battle of secession ? Not they. They dare not. They know 
')etter. Who, then, have you mainly to fight ? Why, this degraded 
'.•lass of " poor whites," as they are called ; and I can assure you, 
•'■'rom what I have seen of them, many are degraded enough. This 
h the refuse out of which the Southern army must be chiefly com- 
Mosed. I have seen them in South Carolina, and North Carolina, 



22 

and Virginia, and ^;ome other of the Slave States, and I tell you 
that these men will not stand lire. I know pretty well what these 
Southern men are ; I know that they are impatient of restraint, and 
that though in a hand-to-hand fight with revolvers and bowie knives 
many of them woidd fight most desperately, yet their ranks cannot 
be kept in that military order which is essential to success upon a 
hii'ge scale. I have frequently seen some of their crack companies 
" play at soldiers ;" and although I am no military man, I have no 
hesitation in saying that if some of our Northern volunteers had wit- 
nessed tlie ludicrous exliibitions which I have witnessed they would 
be ready to split their sides with laughter. Even fighting upon their 
own soil, a well disciplined force would scatter these men like chaff 
before the wind. 

Other causes, in addition to our present knowledge of their ])ecul- 
iar characteristics, lead us to this conclusion — such, for instance, as 
tlie danger of insurrection among the slaves, whom they must keep 
in subjection at all hazai'ds ; the ignoring of all popular I'ight in re- 
fusing to submit the question of secession to a vote of the people; the 
vast number of Union men in all the seceded States, who only wait 
a fair oi)portunity to rally under the National Standard ; the enor- 
mous pi'iA'ations and losses which these Southerners have entailed 
and will entail upon themselves by this unholy crusade against the 
best government in the world ; and above all and beyond all, the in- 
tuitive knowledge that their cause is founded in injustice, and woidd 
tend, if successful, to the establishment of the vilest and most o})pres- 
sive despotism which the Avoi-ld has ever seen — that of Nero not 
exce|)ted. Shakespeare has truly said — 

'• Conscience makes cowards of us all," 

and also that 

" Thvice is he armed who hath his quarrel just, 
And he but naked, though locked up in steel, 
AVhose conscience with injustice is corrupted." 

And you may depend upon it that the consciences of tliese men, when 
the first fiush of anger has passed away, Avill bite them as v/ith a 
scorpion's sting, and constitute a more fearful avenger than all tlie 
hosts of the North, thus rendering them the most cowardly of all 
cowards — the coward who feels he is in the wrong. 

Now, even if time would permit, it would almost be insulting to 
sjjcak of the thousands of brave men who have gone and are going 
Ironi Maine, New Ham])shire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, AVisconsin, Minnesota, and one or two other 
States, to crush out this unnatural rebellion. I need not speak their 
praise. Their deeds, so far, have already bespoken it as an eainest 
of what we may expect in the future. When we consider the char- 
acter of our brav<! troops ; when we consider the vanous classes and 
occupations of which they are composed — the mechanic of every order, 
the lawyer, (he ])hysician, and even (he divine; when we consider 



tlieir unquestioned and unque!-tiona])le reputation for .- obriety, moral- 
ity, religions devotion, and, aLove all, their patriotic devotion to the 
flag of their conntr3% and their firm determination to reestablish our 
government on the basis of the Constitution — when Vt^e consider all 
these things, there is enough of praise and gloiy for our troops with- 
out one single word from me. They have, in short, nothing to fear 
from their antagonists, either as to numbers, intelligence, oi- prowess ; 
the only enemy they have to fear is the enemy "•disease," and even 
him they may foil of his prey by taking all necessary and ]iossible 
precaution, and by a rigid system of abstemiousness. Tell them, 
gentlemen, — you wdio have friends in the Union army, — tell tliem, 
when you write to them, that they need not fear their enemy ; tell 
them that all modern history of battles show^s that not more than two 
and a half to three per cent, of those actually engaged fall by the 
bullet, the bayonet, or the sword, and that the instances are many in 
which the killed are much below this average. 

CONCLUSION. 

Gentlemen: — I might have spoken to you of the first blood that 
was shed, in the passage through Baltimore, for the defence of our 
National Capital ; I might have rejoiced with you, as every brave 
heart will rejoice, at the unexampled gallantry of the brave Ander- 
son ; I might have mourned with you, as every sensitive and affection- 
ate heart does mourn, over the gallant but lamented Ellsworth ; but 
all the words of the most eloquent tongue would fail to touch those 
deeper and still more eloquent springs of the human heart, which God 
himself hath planted there. Gentlemen, your Ellsworth is gone, mur- 
dered unawares by the ruthless hand of an assassin, who, praise be to 
God, met an instant retribution at the hand of the avenger. Your Ells- 
worth is gone, but your Anderson still lives, and is going again to 
serve his country, as he has served it before, and you may dejiend 
upon it, that being let loose from the confines of Fort Sumter, and 
having again put on his country's harness, he Avill be like a roaring 
lion, going about seeking the biggest secessionist whom he may devour. 

So much, gentlemen, for this short review of the question of our 
Civil War, and those who have created, and those who have to meet 
it. I may now conclude with a quotation from the poet IMoore, which 
appears to be peculiarly applicable to this case : — 

Oh for a tongue to curse the slave, 

Whose treason, like a deadly blight, 
Conies o"er the councils of the brave, 

And blasts them in their hour of mii^ht I 
May life's unblessed cup, for him, 
Be drugg'd with treacheries to the brim — 
With hopes that but allure to fly, 

V\ ith joys that vanish while he sips. 
Like Dead-Sea fruits, that tempt the eye, 

But turn to ashes on the lips ! 
Ilis country's curse, his children's shame. 
Outcast of virtue, peace, ancl f.inie. 



24 



May ho, at last, with lips of flame 
On the parch "d desert, thirsting, die,— 
Wiile lakes that shone in mockery nigh 
Are fading off untouched, untasted. 
Like the once glorious hopes he blasted 1 
And when from earth his spirit flies, 

Just Prophet, let the danin'd-one dwell 
Full in the sight of Paradise, 

Beholding Heaven, and feeUng— HELL. 



Such iR llie (loom Avliich the Poet invokes upon the traitor; si. doom 
which will meet witli a hearty resi^onse in every American heart : 
.1 doom to whicli eacli man or woman who reads tliese i)a"-es will 
utter a hearty "Amen," without even the sympathy of a sigh° 

But there is another jiieture in contrast, it is true, with that drawn 
hy the poet. It is the i)ieture of the true patriot— the picture of the 
real lover of his countiy— the picture of the man who looks to his 
liberty first, and then reaps as he may all the blessinjrs which that 
lil)erty can bestow. Show me such a man— I care not if you find 
him in the lowest receptacles of vice— if he loves his country, he is 
my brotlier. Show me such a man in the humblest walks of industry 
])ei-forming the most menial offices which our caimcious natures may 
demand— if he loves his country he is my brother. Show me the 
man who tills the soil, earning his bread by the sweat of his brow, in 
the first and most honorable calling that God ever gave to man— if 
he loves his country he is my brother. Show me the man enga<Ted 
in your workshops of any and of every description, exercisino- the*in'o-e- 
nuity which education and thought have given him— if he loves his 
country he is my brother. Show me the man in what are ordinarily 
regarded the "higher walks of life," the man in the profession of 
medicine, law, or divinity, or the merchant prince who is rolling in 
treasure— Show me these men anywhere, or everywhere— in po\^rty 
or in wealth — in reputation or otherwise in infamy — in youth or in 
age— in any degree of contrast which the imagination can portray, 
and you and I, and all the woi-ld of patriots will recognize each and 
all of them as brethren. And when these men, unlike the traitor, 
come to lay down the burden of the cares of life, they will be blessed 
not only with the approbation of all the good, but with the still higher 
approbation of tlieir own consciences, and the highest annrobatio'ii of 
all-THE APPROBATION OF HEAVEN ITSELF. 



Copies of tliis Lecture Avill be sent, five of i)ostage, to any address 
in the non-seceded States, by addressing to P. ()., Bo.x Mnsr,, Boston, 
Mass., and enclosing a suitable remittance. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 764 598 1 



